Page 238 of The Armor of Light
Jarge remained silent.
The judge said: ‘Next case.’
37
AFTER THE BATTLE OFVITORIA, everything went wrong for Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Battle of Leipzig was the largest ever fought in Europe up until then. It took place in October and involved more than half a million men, and Bonaparte lost. Meanwhile Wellington’s army crossed the Pyrenees mountains and invaded France from the south.
Bonaparte returned to Paris, but the armies that had defeated him at Leipzig chased him. In March 1814 the allies, led by the tsar of Russia and the king of Prussia, entered Paris in triumph.
A few days later, Amos read a headline in theKingsbridge Gazettethat said:
BONAPARTE ABDICATES!
Could it be true? The text went on:
This event is officially confirmed by dispatches from General Sir Charles Stewart. The fallen tyrant has resigned the cares of royalty and accepted a retreat in the Isle of Elba, an insignificant spot off the coast of Tuscany.
‘Thank God,’ said Amos. The war was over.
That evening there was rejoicing in the streets of Kingsbridge. Men who had never served in any army raised their tankards andshared in the glory. Women asked when their husbands and sons would be home, but no one had answers for them. Small boys made wooden swords and vowed to fight the next war. Little girls dreamed of marrying a brave soldier in a red coat.
Wellington was made a duke.
Amos called at Jane’s house with a gift for their son, a globe on a stand. He spent an hour explaining it to Hal, who had a lively curiosity about such things. Amos showed him the places where the armies of Britain and its allies had done battle with Bonaparte’s forces.
Then he sat in the upstairs drawing room of Willard House, looking out at the cathedral, while Jane read him a letter from her husband.
My dear wife,
I am in Paris and it is peace at last. The 107th Foot distinguished itself right up to the end – we won a smashing victory at Toulouse. (That was actually a few days after Bonaparte admitted defeat, but that news did not reach us until after the battle.)
The regiment has had a good war. We lost relatively few men in the last battles. Among the officers, only Ensign Sandy Drummond, the son of the wine merchant, was killed. The chaplain, Kenelm Mackintosh, took a bullet in his posterior – terribly embarrassing for a clergyman! The surgeon took out the ball, washed the wound with gin, and tied on a bandage, and the chaplain seems all right, though he limps a bit. Ensign Joe Hornbeam turned out to be a rather good soldier despite his youth. You may tell the bullying alderman that his grandson is still alive.
The two Kingsbridge men who joined the gunners proved useful at Vitoria, particularly Kit Clitheroe, who I already knew to be a good officer from his service in the militia. I have poached him to be my aide-de-camp.
Now the regiment is moving to Brussels.
‘Brussels?’ said Amos. ‘Why Brussels?’
‘Listen,’ said Jane, and she read on.
The great men of the winning nations are gathering in Vienna, where they will divide Europe up for the future and try to ensure that we never again have such a long and terrible war as this. Among the issues confronting them is what to do about the Netherlands. Bonaparte has surrendered the territory he conquered there – but to whom does it belong now? While the answer to that question is thrashed out in Vienna, someone has to rule in Brussels, and the rumour is that a British army and a Prussian army will have joint control of the Netherlands until a decision is handed down.
And the 107th Foot will be part of the British force.
‘Which means that none of the Kingsbridge men will be coming home,’ said Amos. ‘There will be a lot of disappointed people here.’
‘Well, I shan’t be among them. It makes little difference to me whether Henry is here or a thousand miles away.’
Amos wished she would not harp on about how unhappy she was with her husband. There was nothing anyone could do about it. But he did not complain. He wanted to stay on the right side of her in order to be able to see Hal.
‘Read me the rest,’ he said.
*
By August of 1814 the regiment was encamped in a field outside Brussels. Kit’s transfer from the Royal Artillery to the 107th Foot to be aide-de-camp to the earl of Shiring was an honour, but Kit would have refused had he been given a choice because it separated him from Roger, who remained with the gunners. Kit had no idea where Roger was now, which distressed him.
